Friday, February 5, 2010

long nights at the studio and dirty motels

It's that time again... recording a new album. It feels so new all over again. Maybe because this time around, we are doing it all by ourselves. But one thing hasn't changed. The long nights of being at the studio.

When we recorded our Image of Devotion album, our label owner Roy Doeve would take us to Jeeve's Place in Hollywood. Jeeve's Place was a hidden studio owned by Jeeve. He produced for Eden's Crush(Nicole Scherzinger's pre-Pussycat Dolls group), just to name one of the many artists he has worked with. We would sometimes spend 12 hours a day recording. At times, there would be nothing to do while waiting your turn. We would sit in the front to watch people walk by. Now that I think about it, I don't remember if there was a even tv there. Oh and sometimes if you're lucky, there would be some tamale vendors upfront.

I remember during the last stretch of that album, there was only one last song to record: "Girl It's You." Ironically, it was the very first song we had ever written. It was already 3am and we had to come back at 11am the next morning. Naturally, there was no point in going home, only to drive back up in a few hours. We decided to stay somewhere nearby. So we pulled up to a motel. Eric and I went up to the window, but the attendant was sleeping. He was behind one of those bullet-proof glass windows, the ones you find at a bank. We knocked to wake him up and asked how much it was for a room. Then he asked, "One hour? Two hours? Or the whole night?" What kind of a question was that? I was young and clueless at the time. Before I could figure it out, I turned around and Eric was already back in the van. We found another motel down the street. It was pretty ghetto too. All I could remember was Ian staring at the ceiling fan and saying, "I can't sleep cause I think that fan is seriously gonna fall on me." Man was that night a nightmare. But it sure paid off. The next day, we finished recording our first album.